In The Beginning, There Was Chaos: Browse The Strips

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I put some serious stuff into the strip trying to unravel what was going on in my own life, while poking fun at the "Pattersons." Sensitive issues were out there in the open, but when people would ask me how I could reveal so much, I'd laugh and say it was all a figment of my imagination.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I can still feel the texture and taste the sweet rubbery flavour of a brand new eraser. I had no restraint when it came to chewing on them, and I did bite them in half. My mother would bark at me for destroying a brand new eraser, but MY reasoning was that I now had two!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Fear of the unknown...As a kid, I relied on this to unnerve my brother; he'd believe anything his older sister told him! As an adult, I found myself teasing my kids as well, forgetting how seriously they take these things.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The time I remember best is when Aaron was about 4 years old. I had promised him that if he took a bath, I'd make the water blue. He got into the tub and I put a small amount of food colouring into the water. He was thrilled and played in it happily while I watched. The phone rang. Able to hear him from around the corner, I left Aaron, answered the phone, and spoke to a friend for a few minutes. When I went back into the bathroom, he had emptied all of the bottles of food colouring into the tub.

The water was a dark, muddy green. When Aaron stood up, his body was green from the waist down. I tried to wash it off with soap and scrubbing, but the dye did not come off. I laughed and said, "Well, Aaron, you're going to have a green bum for the rest of your life!" He was horrified! He was so upset that it took awhile before he calmed down, and I realized how frightened he was. I was careful, after that to make sure I didn't tease my kids about something they could take so seriously. The dye eventually wore off.

Now, before you write to tell me how negligent I was to have left a child in the tub alone, let me say that...I KNOW! Nobody's perfect...and my children survived!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Lynn's Comments: On really hot days, my folks would put the sprinkler on, and my brother and I would play all day in the spray. We did the same thing for our kids. One hot summer day, while walking to a friend's house, I saw a sprinkler and thought, "if I was five years old I'd run through that thing in a heartbeat!" Then I thought..."Why can't I do it now?" So, I did.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Lynn's Comments: For Better or For Worse required a lot of time and focus. I did have to stop sometimes and wonder what was more important--Aaron and Katie, or my deadlines? I'm glad now that I took the time to be with them, and later, worked until midnight!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Summer goes by faster in northern Ontario than it does anywhere else on the planet. Come to think of it, so does spring. As a matter of fact, it has been noted that fall (my favourite time of year) disappears faster than springtime, which means winter has several extra months to drag on. I can't say there is any scientific fact to substantiate this phenomenon, but it happens here, just the same.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Lynn's Comments: These are the last words a dental patient wants to hear! Bad days happen no matter what your "calling" is, and our clinic staff had their share. I think the complaints I heard most often were in regards to the fidgety nature of dentistry. Fine instruments and tiny parts, such as drill bits and ortho brackets, can easily pop out of your hands. Trying to finish a tough job on a tight schedule makes a small delay even more frustrating. Combine this with a long day of intense concentration, and you have dentistry in a nutshell. Despite the pressure, most dentists I meet are pretty easy going. I guess it's something they've learned on the job!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Lynn's Comments: When we lived in northern Manitoba, mechanical problems had to be fixed by US. There were no technicians to call, no company to complain to. My husband just figured out how to get things going again. A dental clinic is a really complicated place. There are water lines, air hoses, suction devices, and all kinds of appliances. When we set up the practice, he put in all of this stuff himself. The clinic was in an apartment above Walter Perepeluk's grocery store. Rod and a friend worked for days to attach all the pipes, and this had to be done between the tiles on the ceiling of the store below. After a great deal of hard labour, it was announced that the pipes and the wiring were complete. We celebrated with a good dinner and a glass of wine. The next morning, however, when Rod went into the grocery store to check on his handiwork, Walter met him at the door with a strained look on his face. The entire ceiling, a network of plywood, panels, and tiles had fallen to the floor. The store was a mess of tiles, dust, and dirty produce. With more than a little fanfare, the new dentist had arrived!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Lynn's Comments: All of this rant is absolutely true! My mom would have disinherited me if I had moved in with a boyfriend before marriage. She had a double standard when it came to Alan...he was, after all, a boy!

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This dialogue between my brother and me really happened. My brother's wonderful wit often came out like a crafted punch line.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Alan broke my walking doll by holding both legs and making her walk as fast as possible. She wasn't meant for BOYS to play with!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Lynn's Comments: When I was having marriage problems (the first time), I went home to stay with my parents for a while to clear my head and see things from a different point of view. I said to my mother that I wished I had lived with my partner before we had married. In reply, she said she would have disinherited me. "You wouldn't disinherit Alan (my brother) if he lived with someone before marriage!" I said. "That's different." she huffed, "He's a boy."

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Here is another strip that got me into hot water. Removing Michael's towel while he was changing was a reportable offense! The problem with a static image is the subtle elements, which would otherwise explain things, are not there. You can't show subtle things like eye movement, shrugs, knowing smiles, and reassuring gestures. The artist knows the situation is all in fun, but the audience does not. What should be funny is therefore sometimes misinterpreted.

As kids, we would change on the beach under our towels so fast that even the swiftest voyeur was unable to catch us in the buff. We'd yell out "I'm changing!!" just to goad someone into pulling off our towels. That's what kids do! Anyway, this ran and I knew as I saw it in print that I would soon be getting more mail. I learned another lesson... but then again, this job is all "towel and error!"

Monday, September 3, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This is the truth. As a kid I said the same thing. Kids clean up their rooms to please their mothers and as a mother, I felt I deserved this small effort!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Lynn's Comments: In the north, we always had pork and beans on hand. This was serious "bush" cuisine. P&B accompanied most guides and trappers into the woods. It was common to hear a hunter say, "I'm goin' out with a couple of pork an' beaners" ---meaning he was going hunting with a couple of guides. My daughter Katie loved pork and beans. She liked to mash them into her plate, fire them onto the floor, and occasionally eat them. They kept her occupied. And to this day, I still call her "Beans!"

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Lynn's Comments: After dinner we had a routine: Check to see what homework had been brought home and "remind" Aaron until he got it done. Oh, he would have done it without the nagging. He would have left it until the last minute and dashed off enough to make do. He might even get up in the middle of the night to complete a project, but we liked him to finish it earlier. We wanted to teach him responsibility and pride in having done something to the best of his ability. We didn't want him to do what WE did!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This is a rather revealing commentary. My husband's mom was the kind of parent who said, "Wait until your father gets home!" This made his dad the disciplinarian; one who was tired, hungry, and impatient. On a number of occasions, Rod told me he had been afraid of his father and I was surprised. In my opinion, he was kind and gentle and good with children, which shows how different we can be when we're under stress.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This was me. I remember tying knots in the curtains, jumping on the couch, melting crayons on the radiator, peeling the wallpaper, and dropping toys into the biff. I don't think I was doing these things to be destructive as much as I needed stuff to do. We didn't have a TV, mom worked all the time doing laundry, canning, cleaning, and making meals. And when she wasn't doing housework, she sewed for us and did repairs and alterations for the dry cleaners down the street. She tried all kinds of things to keep us occupied. It's just that we needed constant attention and she wasn't superhuman. She did the best she could. Rainy weather often kept us indoors even in summertime, so it would be interesting for me to poll some of my fellow North Vancouverites to see if they too were as full of mischief as we were.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Lynn's Comments: When my children started going to school, I found it interesting to hear them talk about their teachers' private lives. Teachers talked about their children, their summer holidays, their childhoods, and so on. In short, they admitted they were real people! I think this helped my kids to relax, to trust, and to enjoy their classroom experience.